The instant pot

Background

Invented in 2010, the Instant Pot quickly became one of the bestselling brands on Amazon.com with one of the highest overall customer ratings. The first product launched by the company was the Instant Pot Lux 6-in-1Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, the most advanced pressure cooker available on the market at the time. Today, the company sells numerous models of different sizes and functionalities. For our analysis, we will focus on the Intant Pot Lux60 V3 6 quart 6-in-1 multi-use programmable pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, saute, steamer, and warmer.

According to the company website, the Instant Pot line of products are tools for a new lifestyle catered to the needs of health-minded individuals, those with special dietary restrictions, the do-it-yourself food enthusiasts and anyone looking to save time in the kitchen while providing nutritious, well-balanced meals.

 

The control panel

The control panel of the Instant Pot consists of a large LED display, cooking program keys, +/- keys to adjust time and a Keep Warm/Cancel key.

The Instant Pot user manual includes the below chart to describe the different cooking program options.

Programs	Modes	Suggested uses
Soup/broth	Less	Soup without meat
	Normal	Soup with meat
	More	Rich bone broth
Meat/stew	Less	Soft texture
	Normal	Very soft texture
	More	Fall-off-the bone meat texture
Cake	Less	Lighter moist cakes
	Normal	Denser moist cakes
	More	New York style cheesecakes
Egg	Less	Soft boiled eggs
	Normal	Medium boiled eggs
	More	Hard boiled eggs
Saute	Less	Simemering, thickening, and reducing liquids
	Normal	Stir-frying
	More	Pan searing or browning meat
Slow cook	Less	Corresponds to Low setting in some temperature controlled slow cookers
	Normal	Corresponds to Medium setting in some temperature controlled slow cookers
	More	Corresponds to High setting in some temperature controlled slow cookers
Rice	N/A	White rice of various types
Multigrain	Less	Wild rice, brown rice, mung beans, etc
	Normal	Wild rice, brown rice, mung beans, etc
	More	Tough grains or a mixture of grains and beans
Porridge	Less	Oatmeal
	Normal	White rice porridge/congee
	More	Rice porridge/congee with various rice and beans

 

Quick start

The Instant Pot has many different functionalities but I am going to focus on only two: Meat/stew and saute. If we look at the user manual, it seems pretty easy to use both modes. Let's start with pressure cook instructions first and the the saute instructions.

1. Fill the inner pot with your ingredients

2. Position the steam release handle to Sealing

3. Select a pressure cooking program: Soup/Broth, Meat/Stew, Cake , Egg, Rice, Multigrain , Porridge, Steam or Manual

4. Change the cooking time by pressing the Adjust button. Select between three preset cooking times, Normal, Less and More by pressing the Adjust button repeatedly, or add/subtract time by pressing and holding the +/- buttons repeatedly

5. 10 seconds after choosing the settings, the cooker beeps 3 times and displays On to indicate that the cooker has starter cooking. When the cooking cycle has finished, the cooker beeps and enters the Keep warm mode

6. Release the pressure by turning the steam release handle to the Venting position

1. Select the Saute option

2. To change the cooking temperature, press Adjust repeatedly to select between Less (for simmering or thickening sauce), Normal (for stir-frying), and More (for pan searing or browning meat). 10 seconds after choosing the settings, the cooking process will start.

3. Add food to the inner pot and sauté.

Let's start cooking!

 

Putting instructions to practice

It's a cold night, extremely windy out, and I'm really in the mood for some beef stew. Without a pressure cooker, it would take a couple of hours of cooking to satisfy my craving. But, thanks to my trusty Instant Pot, I can have beef stew in under an hour. The recipe is quite simple: first, you chop the vegetables, then brown the meat, simmer the wine, and then throw everything back in the pot and cook.

The recipe reads: Set an electric pressure cooker to "brown" according to the manufacturer's instructions and warm the olive oil. Add half the beef and brown on all sides. My Instant Pot doesn't have a "brown" setting, but according to the instructions, Saute on the More mode should do it!

 

 

1. Here's the pile of meat I need to brown	2. Turning the pot on to the Saute mode. What does the 30 mean?	3. The oil is now hot so meat is going on!	4. My meat is burning! And the pot says hot so let me turn it down
5. But the minus button doesn't do anything! How do I turn it down?	6. Ok I guess I have to turn it off first...	7. ...and then turn it on and hit adjust twice	8. But it still says 30 for some reason?
9. The meat's done! I have to turn it off before I can switch to the Meat/stew mode	10. Ok, the recipe says 20 minute	11. Let me hit the plus sign until it says 20	12. The recipe says to cook it on high so I'll hit the Adjust button, but it goes to Less first?
13. I hit it once more and finally it's on More, which I assume means high?	14. Beep beep beep! But it says On now? Is it cooking?	15. Oh finally! The timer comes on	16. Done!